Photo- lit ho



(No Model.) 3 sheets-sheen 14 H. K. KING.

PAPER PULDING'MAGHINE. 4 No. 602,990` Patented Apr.. 26, 1898.

Witnesses. Inventor.

me onlus virtus co. mom-uma.. was-Mmmm, n. c.

PatentedApr. 96, 1999.

Inventor.

Witnesses.

Attorney.

wa genius PETERS cnw. wcm-umm wsrzmsmu. oA c,

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

H. K. KING. PAPER PoLDING MACHINE.

No. 602,990. Patented Apr. 26, 1898.

#a a E .-J` Q QH [o QU *N zo n H alsi Q n Witnesses ,Q3 Inventor. H H

UNITED STATES .ATnT rains.

HOIVARD K. KING, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS COMPANY, OF SAME PLAGE.

PAPER-FOLDING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATEON for-ming part of Letters Patent No. 602,990, dated April 26, 1898.

` Application nea May 1, 1897. seria No. 634,726. dit man.)

To @ZZ whom t 'nutyconccrm Be it known that I, HOWARD K. KING, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Paper-Folding Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawin gs, of which-' Figure l, Sheet l, is a front elevation of a paper-foldin g machine to which my invention is applied, only such parts as are necessary to illustrate my invention being shown. Fig. 2, Sheet 2, is a side elevation, partiallybroken away, of Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a detail, partly in section, showing the devices for raising and lowering the forward ends of the packingtroughs. Fig. 4, Sheet 3, is a plan view showing the shoe-'fly tables and their supplemental bar as relatively arranged. Fig. 5 is a vertical section on line a; az, Fig. 2, looking toward the rear end of the machine, showing means for raising and lowering the rear ends of the packing-troughs. Fig. 6 is a detail in plan showing the arin extending from the rear end of one of the pachingtroughs with its pivotal connection to the nut carried by the vertical threaded shaft.

This invention relates more especially to paper-folding machines wherein each sheet of paper fed into the machine is divided and finally folded into several signatures-as, for example, three signatures of twelve pages each or four of sixteen each-and wherein the signatures as they come from the last sets of folding-rolls are delivered to the respective packingtroughs by means of shoe-nys.

One object of the invention is to provide means whereby the several packing-troughs can be simultaneously adjusted vertically at one end and also means whereby the other ends may also be simultaneously vertically adjusted, which latter adjustment can also be made whatever may be the position to which the troughs are laterally adjusted.

Another object of the invention is to pro.

vide a means whereby the shoo-flys with tables of a given size are better capable of use than heretofore with sheets of both small and large sizes, without requiring any change in the shoo-flys.

The exact nature of the invention will clearly appear from the following description of a folding-machine of the said class in which myiinprovements are embodied, the improve ments being particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate my invention, but show only those well-known parts of a three-twelfths folding-machine which are necessary to an understanding of my improvements, l is the main frame of the machine.

2 are the last sets of folding-rollers, three in numberin this inst-ance. (Indicated by dotted lines in Fig. l.)

4 are the usual reciprocative blades that tuck the sheets into the bite of the said rolls, which blades are carried by the vibrating arms 5.

6 are the shoe-fly boxes, and 7 their tables, upon which the edge of the sheets temporarily rest as they fall from the bite of the foldingrolls into the said boxes. Each set of the said rolls is journaled in and their folding-blade, dsc., is connected to a frame S, Fig. l, which frames are su pported by and adapted to slide longitudinally upon transverse guide-rails 9, secured to the sides of the main frame, each of said frames in the present instance being secured to and resting upon its bed-plate S, Fig. 2, the frames not being shown in that figure. Two of these frames, the first and second on the left, are adj usted along the said guide-rails by means of a rotatable screwthreaded shaft l0, that passes through threaded holes in the frames 8. The relative pitches of the parts 10a and 10b of the threads of the shaft which en gage the said two frames, respectively, are such that when said shaft is rotated by turning a hand-wheel 1l, Fig. l, on its end in either direction the distance between the first and second frames and that between the second and the third frames, which latter is not adjustable, will be equalthat is to say, the pitches of the thread are such that the first frame will when the shaft is turned travel twice the distance that the second frame travels.

The foregoing-described constructions are not, however, new.

12 are the packing-troughs, of usual form,

IOO

l located., respectively, below the sets of :folding-rolls and shoo-flys and running in lines parallel with the rolls, respectively. The front or outer end of each of these troughs is supported by a ish-tail bracket 13, the iirst two of Which brackets on the left constitute, in effect, nuts upon a shaft 14, which is parallel with the shaft 10 and is provided with screw-threads 14 and 14h, that have the same relative pitches as the threaded portions 10a 10b of the shaft 10. Shaft 14 is journaled in a box or bearing 15 on the end of an arm 'or' The thirdk bracket, which supports the third packinghan ger 16, hereinafter referred to.

trough on the right, is, like the third one of the frames 8, not longitudinally adjustable, (al-though both said bracket Aand frame may be made adjustable if necessary while all three of the brackets rest upon the top fof a common guide-bar 17. The latteris pivotally suspended by means of aperturcd lugs 19 at each end-to the said box 15 at one end and at the other end to a pin 20, l(indicated by'dotted lines,) projecting inwardly from `a hanger 16, similar to the aforesaid hanger 1'6, and these hangers are respectively pivoted on studs or pins 21, projecting 'inwardly from the sides of the main frame of the machine.

The threaded shafts 10 and 14 are connected by a sprocket-chain 22 or the like running over wheels 23 of the same diameter on the respective shafts.

1t 'will be obvious that if the hangers be swung on their pivots in the arc'of a circle the threaded shaft 14, with the iish tail brackets thereon, as also the third or non-adjustable bracket and the bar 17, will as a Whole (and consequently the ends of the packing-throughs) be raised or lowered as the-'case may be. It will be equally obvious that by turning the hand-wheel on Jthe yend o'f the shaft 10 the first two of the frames 8 and the corresponding brackets will be moved or adjusted in concert, be the lextent of the elevation of the hangers and their connections what they may. In order, however, `tojconveniently effect the desired adjustment of the hangers fand their described adjuncts, I employ the followi'n g construction:

24 are two screw-threaded shafts, one forl each hanger, that are journaled in crownsof yokes 25, which are pivoted on a transverse horizontal shaft 27. On the lower endiof each shaft v24 is a bevel-gear 28, whose teeth engage lthose of a similar gear 29 upon 'theshaft 27. This shaft 'is journaled in lugs 30 of the, main frame. Each of the screw-threaded shf-afts "24 passes through a threaded nut 31, i which has an inwardly-projectin g pin or stud l 32., that is fpivotally attached to the hanger. The shafts 24 are substantially at'rightlangles to the curved faces of the latter, as seen Ain. Fig. 2. By rotating one-of the shafts 'by turni ing a hand-wheel 33 thereon vthe `other shaft` willbe similarly rotated, andithus the hangers and the parts carried thereby may be vswun'g on their pivots to a higher or lower position and .so the height of the front ends of the packing-troughs always simultaneously adjusted.

The rear or inner ends of the packingtroughs are pivotally supported by a part of the frames 8, so that the front end may rise or fall, and also so that both ends of the troughs will be carried together' when the transverse adjustments are made byturniug the hand-wheel 1l upon the shaft 10. It is or may be, however, and usually is, necessary to adjust the height of the inner ends of the packing-troughs simultaneously. This I do as follows: I secure to the rear end of each trough an arm 34, whose free end is pivoted on studs 35 of -a nut 36 upon a vertical screwthreaded shaft 37, whose upper end is journaled ina lug 38, which is secured to an arm 39, that depends from the frame 8. The lower part` of this shaft is journaled in `a horizontal limb of an angular bracket 40, that is secu red to fand forms a part of the 4aforesaid depending arm 39. Upon the lowerend of the shaft 37 is a bevel-gear 41, that engages a bevelgear 42 upon a horizontal shaft 43, which is journaled in boxes 44 of the vertical limbs of the several brackets 40. vTh-e two bevel-gears upon thesaid shaft, which are connected with the adjustable frames 8, are secured to their shaft by a spline .and groove, so that the gears may sl'idealong the shaft. The thirdgear on the right may also, if desired, be connected rto the shaft in the same way. Thus when the fram-es 8, die., lare adjusted the threaded shafts 37 land their `'adj uncts will likewise be ladjusted, the gears :upon .said shafts always remaining engaged with the gears upon the horizontal shaft 43. By turning the handwlheel 451on the end of the latter shaft the `several threaded shafts 37 will be rotated, and the nuts 36 carried up or down thereon, `as the case may be,.and consequently elevating the inner ends of the packing-troughs, which, it will be remembered, are pivotallyconnected to `the respective nuts, and thus these ends of the troughs will at one and the sametiine be adjusted as maybe necessary.

As it is sometimes desirable to provide :means for tightening the sprocket-chain, I make the hangers 16 y16a in Itwo parts, the outer end portion being provided with ia longitudinal slot 46, Fig. 2., through which and a hole in the other part passes abolt 47, with la nut 48 'thereon .that lconnects the two parts together.

The last feature of jmy invention to be described, which 4has lbeen hereinbefore referred Lto, relating to the Shoo-fly, has `for its object to obviate a difficulty which I found to exist in practice in.afolding-ma'chineof the nature described, wherein the `mechanism is adjustable to fold sheets :of differentsizes. This :difficulty was that it was necessary to change IOO as if the tables were small (and they must be limited in size in such adjustable machines) they would not properly support the sheets as they descended from the folding-rolls into the transfer-boX-that is to say, the sheets would be liable to tip over and fall. To obviate this, I make the tables 7 of a size suitable for the smaller sheets which the machine may be adjusted to fold, and a suitable distance back of the tables I place a transverse bar -1-9, whose ends are secured to the main frame of the machine and whose top surface is on the same plane as that of the top surface of the several shoe-ily tables. Thus the edge of the folded sheets that projects beyond the table is supported, as indicated by the dotted lines representing the sheet 50 in Figs. 2 and 4:, while when the transfer-box rotates to carry the sheet into position for it to descend into the packing-trough there will be a free passage-way between the table and the said bar.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patentl. The combination of the sliding frames carrying the folding devices, the screwthreaded shaft for laterally adjusting said frames, a second similar threaded shaft, the pivoted hangers in which the latter shaft is journaled, the nut-brackets upon said shaft, the packing-troughs whose outerv ends are supported by said brackets respectively, and whose inner ends are pivotally connected to said frames; mea-ns for adjusting said hangers in the arc of a circle; means for supporting and vertically adjusting the inner ends of the troughs together with the sprocketchain or the like, connecting said screwthreaded shafts, whereby the said frames and packing-troughs may be adj usted laterally in concert, and the latter may be adjusted vertically at any lateral adjustments thereof, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In a folding-machine of the nature described, the combination of the sliding frames carrying the folding devices, the packingtroughs, means for laterally adjusting said frames and troughs in concert, simultaneously; means for supporting, and simultaneously adjusting the elevation of, the outer ends of the troughs, and means for supporting and adjusting the elevation of the rear or inner ends of said troughs, at any lateral adj ustment thereof; said latter means consisting of the vertical screw-threaded shafts connected to the said sliding frames, the nuts on the said shafts respectively, to which nuts the ends of the troughs are pivoted; the horizontally-extending shaft, and the gear connections of said vertical shafts and horizontal shaft, all constructed, combined and adapted to operate substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In a folding-machine of the class recited, the combination of the sliding frames, carrying the folding devices, the shoo-flys connected to said frames, respectively, the packing-troughs; means for supporting and adjusting said frames and adj uncts with relation to each other, and means for supporting and correspondingly adjusting said troughs, together with the bar adjacent to the shoo-liy tables and having its top in the same horizontal plane as that of the said tables, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto affixed my signature in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HOWARD K. KING.

'Witnessesz WALTER C. Pussy, JOSHUA. PUsEY. 

